Milford Elementary: Book One in the Gwendolyn Strong Small Town Cozy Mystery Series by J A Hoda

Author:J A Hoda [Hoda, J A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: All Things Investigative, LLC
Published: 2022-10-05T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“How long do you think Brian and Becky were away from the cabin, Mom?” Erin asks after I tell her about my day.

I look at my timeline on the blackboard in my office as I talk to her on the phone. “Half hour, tops. The Dawson boys left after eleven thirty. Brian says they stayed around for one drink with Becky, then he took her home. Mr. Chalmers says he hears a ‘pop’ during the last commercial before the end of the movie he’s watching. He made the noise complaint about ten minutes before twelve. Then Brian Yelito calls it in seven minutes after midnight.”

“Wendy smells the gunpowder when she enters the cabin,” Erin reminds me.

“That is what she said,” I reply.

“Do we know when she arrived?” she asks.

“Nope, but I can find out easily enough.”

“Doors and windows closed would keep the smell inside longer,” she says. I can hear the kids arguing about the TV in the background. “Wait a minute, Mom.” I hear her banish my precious grandchildren to their rooms with the threat of no electronics for the night if she hears another peep from them. “I’m back.”

“I can ask Brian again about the windows,” I say.

“What do you think about Brian, Mom?”

“I can circle back with Sharon and Candace about how savvy Brian was in the business,” I tell her.

“What do you make about him not naming the Stillman twins to you?” she asks.

“He told me that I didn’t know them, which is true, and I didn’t think he needed to identify a big cash customer he was hiding from the government to his former kindergarten teacher.”

“Agreed,” she says.

“Did I tell you he was working on a Stillman Mustang when I showed up?”

“No, Mom, you failed to supply me with that fact.”

“He was upset that he had the wrong parts and had to return them. That’s how I could bring up them being cash customers without naming them.”

“Smooth. What do you think about him now?”

“He has an alibi with Becky Steele. The Dawson brothers left them while Jake was cleaning up, and Wendy saw them when she arrived. If drunk Becky hadn’t forgotten her purse, people would show up at the cabin the next day wondering why he wasn’t at the church and find his corpse.”

“What about the Stillmans?” she asks.

“Would he be seated at a table like that if they came in uninvited after everybody had left him alone?” I ask her back.

“Maybe they pretended to make a deal with him and caught him by surprise,” she says.

“I can’t disagree with you, Erin.”

“You’re doing the double negative thing on me again, Mom. Why can’t you agree with me?”

“Just need to think it out. I learned a great deal today and I want to process it, that’s all,” I explain to my sharp as a tack daughter.

Ken walks into my makeshift office and waggles his cell phone at me.

“Hold on, Erin.”

Ken says, “Brian Yelito left a voice message saying that he forgot to tell you something important and to call him.

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